The following is a look back at the things that really stood out in the Iowa innovation community in 2016. To create it, I combed through the past 51 issues of The Pull and grouped the highlights into three pretty handy categories: Acquisitions, Accelerators and Investment. Of course, there were several other items that I wanted to include that didn't fit as neatly into one of the categories so you'll find them at the end in the "The Year in Other Stuff" section.

Putting together a post like this really makes one appreciate how much ground we cover as a community in the course of a year. You're all pretty great. 

At Iowa BIG, we've pushed the envelope of re-inventing education so far and so fast that we're seeing some pushback. This is actually a good sign, as we as a State need to have a serious discussion about the need to change education more rapidly than what we're seeing. One area where we find pushback from peers in the United States is in regards to the concept of academic "rigor."

How can we prepare students for the “real world” when many of the future jobs they will tackle have yet to be created, and those that currently exist, already experience radical upheaval and elimination? The answer is to invite the public back into public education. As a rapidly changing world increases the need for authentic and contextualized education, embedding students in real businesses, nonprofits, government organizations, and coworking spaces with real world professionals and opportunities represents the preeminent method of preparing high school students.